Friday, December 28, 2012

The Christmas Bug

Hi Mousekateers! It's been awhile, and for that I am sorry. I wanted to do a brief recap of my eventful Christmas holiday. So, grab some popcorn, but no need to stick around if you've got a particularly weak stomach.

Christmas itself was actually pretty good. On Christmas Eve, my mom, hubby and I all went to our church's Christmas Eve service. It was beautifully done, and we even finished the service outdoors (something you'd likely not find in Wisconsin) with all our candles lit. I started to have a little bit of a sniffle that night, but really didn't think much of it.

I woke up on Christmas morning with a burning in my chest. Not a figurative one, either. Again, I wasn't too worried and insisted that it was likely a cold. I took some Mucinex and enjoyed Christmas lunch with my mom and step dad. It was a delicious meal, and we had a great time just getting to be together.

We did a mini gift exchange. I had gone crazy on Pinterest and made all kinds of homemade stuff for my mom including sugar scrub, bath salts (hopefully not the "I'll eat your face" kind), homemade soap (with fresh lavender inside!), and a homemade candle (also with fresh lavender). My mom insisted that we not buy anything for her this year, so I figured making something wouldn't be breaking the rules. Mom got me an iPad (which is absolutely amazing, but the way...I'm on it right now!) and she gave Chad enough money to put new tires on his truck! All of this on top of the brand new mattress they had bought for us as an early Christmas. Suffice it to say that I have pretty much the coolest mom ever.

After the gift exchange we kind if took it easy. I stated to have some interesting sounding coughs, but I was pretty sure it would pass. Mom sent me home with the Mucinex and we hung out in the couch for the reminder of the day. I was starting to get really tired, but again, we didn't think too much of it.

Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn't sleep much. In fact, when I laid down, it felt like I was drowning. My coughs were sounding worse and worse, and I was having severe hot and cold flashes. I took my temperature and sure enough, it was 104. I'm not exaggerating at all. We thought there was something wrong with the thermometer, but we were starting to actually get concerned. Hubby finally convinced me that we needed to go to the doctor (of course, my medical insurance doesn't start until 1/1/13 so I knew this was going to cost an arm and a leg). Truth be told, I probably should've been in the hospital. By the time we got to the Take Care Clinic at Target, I was at my worst by far. My temp was still insane (it came down a bit to 103.8) and I was so dehydrated that my muscles were starting to seize up. My heart was racing at a pretty alarming rate. They ran a few tests, including a flu test, which came back negative. Finally they diagnosed it as pneumonia. They wrote me a Rx for some antibiotics and told me I need to be drinking water around the clock and taking Tylenol on a regular basis to help ease the inflammation.

We walked over to the Target pharmacy and hubby called my mom. There I sat, on the bench in the middle of a store, and willed myself not to die. Honestly, I have never felt so sick in my entire life. I almost passed out a few times, but luckily hubby was keeping an eye on me. We picked up my drugs, went home and tried to take it easy. I managed to down an entire bottle of water in about 15 minutes. I tried hard to get some sleep, but between my coughing and constant wheezing, I know neither one of us slept a wink.

Since then, things have been up and down. Occasionally my fever will get down to 100, then a few hours later it shoots back up to 102. My coughing is horribly painful (still) and I don't think I've tasted or smelled anything except mucus and blood for the last few days. I felt so bad about keeping hubby up that I've been "sleeping" on the couch since the poor guy has to get up at 5:00 am for work each morning. He needs his sleep! I haven't been doing much sleeping though. I've been coughing myself awake, and I'd be lucky if I had gotten maybe an hour of sleep within the past few days. And now I'm in that lovely phase where I'm coughing up some, uh, stuff.

I'm praying that things get better soon. I'm on vacation from work until the 2nd, and this was not the way I envisioned my vacation going.

So, I apologize for the complaining. If you stuck it out and are still with me, you get a gold star for sure. I hope all of you have had a happy, healthy holiday season and a able to ring in 2013 with the people you love!

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